I really don’t follow other racing series. The coverage in Norway is very poor, so I havn’t seen enough races to judge thaitr performances, but I think it was about time Bourdais got a chance â€” he should just have got a better seat, why not Fisichella’s.

Both Toyota drivers are past their sell by date, so I would like to see Nelson Piquet Jr get a chance.

None of the GP2 drivers seem too impressive, but a Scandinavian driver would be nice â€” Maybe Tom Kristensen or Mattias EkstrÃ¶m from DTM?

Are we looking at the best ‘open wheel drivers’ or the best overall drivers?

I know you guys are going to hate to hear this but what about (a thinner) Tony Stewart….. This guy has won in every type of car he has been in. Sure he races Nascar now but he did start in open wheel. Nascar is where the money is at and the racing is competitive, can you blame him?

“Formula 1 is the number one form of motorsport – but does it also have the best racing drivers in the world?”
Sorry Keith, that’s OPINION, not fact. Most F1 races are mere high speed parades, the sport is ensnared in ridiculous rules and politics, all of which is soundly lamented by all of us on any given day. That said, F1 is our chosen following and could some drivers be replaced with others…..yes, but I’ve not seen but one driver to IMPROVE F1 when he enters the scene.
And we all know who the one is……but after his conduct at Hungary and now he’s running around with the owner’s daughter, etc…..he’s proven to be little “improvement”.
Another year of Michael Schumacher would have been better. And why are we so hasty in throwing away our treasure. I remember names like Alan McNish thrown out of F1 only to become a world champion in prototypes, Justin Wilson, financed himself and journeyer above suggests he should get a second chance, I concure. And “BEST drivers”……Dan M opened the field to NASCAR driver Tony Stewart, again as BEST driver there is great talent elsewhere. Too often my F1 friends decry so-and-so couldn’t cut it in F1 but few F1 drivers could cut it in other disiplines…….young Mr. Hamilton for instance…..
would likely be making an early pitstop in a NASCAR race to change his diapers! Many know I am an old goat who’s followed F1 since the days of Vanwall and Cooper and Maserati, I’ve seen drivers come and go and
…………perhaps I’ve babbled on long enough. I’m not in favor of changing ANY drivers for the sake of change, a slower natural evolution is by far the best to maintain the best standard.

If I look around I do not see any driver outside F1 who would be above the level of current F1 drivers. Bourdais got his chance, good for him, but what point would there be to replace for example R Schumacher or Barrichello with Montoya or Villeneuve or Hakkinenen ?

The only guy on F1 grid now who is lagging behind is Yamamoto, but he is in the slowest dog of a car on the grid and even if Montoya drives it a second faster than Yamamoto it would still be the slowest car on the grid.

If Prodrive enters there will 2 extra race seats, and I hope some of the current test drivers will get their racing chances rather than imports from other racing series.

“â€œFormula 1 is the number one form of motorsport – but does it also have the best racing drivers in the world?â€
Sorry Keith, thatâ€™s OPINION, not fact.”

Fair enought, Number 36, but what would you suggest IS the number one form of motorsport? Anyway, Keith never explicitly stated number one at WHAT. F1 is clearly number one in terms of viewers, money generated, technology incorporated, engineering level. If you’re talking entertainment, it might not be. If you’re talking average driver skill, I’d say it is.

I hate ppl who just say Montoya is bad and schumi is everything.
If you look good at the Montoya’s f1 carreer you can say he did really well with the cars he had…
At Williams he was the better of Ralf (except for his rookie year)…
everyone blames him for not taking the championship while they forget his car wasn’t a championshop winning car (except for Mclaren 05, and he was the best in second half of that season, bad luck and helping kimi (ex. belgium) hide it)
03 he had to win it imho. And what ppl tend to forget is that Ferrari was so dominating nobody could win it except for Schumi!

From the current grid in F1, I would drop Fisi, Coulthard, Button, Yamamoto and Wurz.
Fisi – Had his best days with Jordan….say no more
Coulthard – Has always been #2 driver..over rated
Button – Moved to wrong teams at wrong times…
Yamamota – Last year should have been the end of him
Wurz – Good tester, never quite made the cut.

Again, I ask, Fer no. 65, which other series in the world has better drivers? Yamamoto is the only one who is out of his depth. Yeah folk like Ralf and Jarno and Fisi are not superstars and not stellarly quick, but you’d take them over, pretty much anyone in Champcar/IRl except the absolute top guys in them. I think there’s (a) a bit of hypercriticism and (b) forgetfulness that it’s 75% car and 25% driver so drivers supposedly off the pace of Alonso etc. aren’t neccessarily vastly inferior, they’re just stuck in crappy machinery. They’re still all damn good drivers compared to pretty much any other series in the world.